Messianic Jews Singled Out in Israeli Town

Flyers post addresses, phone numbers of harassed minority.

By Wayne King

 

ISTANBUL, September 15 (Compass Direct News) – Messianic Jews in a suburb west of Jerusalem continue to be harassed for following their faith, this time by someone anonymously placing flyers in public areas singling out members of Messianic congregations.

 

The flyers began appearing two weeks ago in the town of Mevasseret Zion. Asher Intrater, leader of the Ahavat Yeshua Congregation, said he thinks the flyers are “an effort to drive us out of the neighborhood.”

 

The flyers posted the addresses and phone numbers of the Messianic Jews, and in some cases included their photographs. Intrater said he thinks the addresses were placed on the flyers to incite others to harass or harm the Messianic Jews.

 

“Why else would you put the addresses on the flyers?” he said.

 

This is the second time in three months that a group has singled out Messianic Jews in Mevasseret Zion for ridicule. On June 26, members of Yad L’Achim, an ultra-Orthodox, anti-Christian group, protested outside the home of Serge and Naama Kogen, a messianic couple.

 

Yad L’Achim claimed the couple had befriended and then manipulated a teenager into becoming a Christian. The Kogens denied the charge, as did the 16-year-old girl who was the alleged conversion target. The girl’s parents, with considerable help from Yad L’Achim, filed charges against the Kogens and Intrater. The judge found in favor of Intrater and the Kogens and dismissed all the charges.

 

It is unclear who actually posted the flyers, and Intrater declined to speculate. But the flyers match a well-established pattern in Israel. According to a classified communiqué issued by the U.S. State Department in May 2008 and leaked on Aug. 30 by Internet activist group Wikileaks, “‘Outing’ Messianic Jews and Evangelical Christians through the publication of names, photos and addresses alongside flyers with hysterical allegations about ‘soul stealing’ and ‘brainwashing’ is a favorite tactic of Yad L’Achim branches throughout the country.”

 

The State Department further noted links between Yad L’Achim and both national and local governments in Israel.

 

“Yad L’Achim and other anti-missionary activists may also have allies, tacit or active, in the Interior Ministry and police departments, where clerks and police officers have wide discretion in deciding which national benefits a person is entitled to and which crimes are worth investigating, given limited resources,” the State Department communiqué said.

 

As an example of the links, the communiqué referred to comments made by Uzi Aharon, one-time deputy mayor of the Tel Aviv suburb of Or Yehuda. According to the State Department, Aharon told the Israeli daily Ma’ariv in 2008 that the Or Yehuda municipality “operated a team of activists, available 24-hours a day, devoted entirely to uprooting missionary activity, and that the burning [of Christian materials] was a fulfillment of the commandment to ‘burn the evil from your midst.’”

 

Aharon was a prime player in a May 15, 2008 incident in which, on his instruction, a group of students from a local ultra-Orthodox school collected hundreds of New Testaments from throughout the town. The Bibles were later burned in front of a synagogue.

 

Kogen said that the flyers in Mevasseret Zion stay up only a brief while before someone rips them down. Intrater added that the latest round of harassment has been viewed as such an invasion of privacy that it may have “backfired a little bit.”

 

“This is the first time we have seen a positive response from the local government, TheJerusalem  Post and possibly the police,” Intrater said.

 

www.compassdirect.org

 

END

 

*** A photo of a member of Yad L’Achim protesting outside the home of Messianic Jewish couple Serge and Naama Kogen is attached for subscribers, to be used with credit to Compass Direct News. A high resolution photo is also available; contact Compass for transmittal.

 

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Copyright 2011 Compass Direct News

Messianic Christian Couple in Israel Accused of Converting Minor

Ultra-Orthodox Jews harass, threaten pair even though 16-year-old has not converted

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (ANS) -- Compass Direct News (CDN) is reporting that a hard-line Jewish ultra-Orthodox group in Israel that singles out Jewish Christians known as Messianic Jews for harassment and abuse is taking aim at a couple it claims is manipulating minors into becoming Christians

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A neighbor confronts 16-year-old Donna Lubofsky about her faith. (Photo: Compass)

CDN said that the Yad L'Achim group this week placed leaflets around the home of Serge and Naama Kogen, 37 and 42 respectively, in Mevasseret Zion, a suburban community located just west of Jerusalem.

"The same week someone took out a full-page ad in a local newspaper giving the couple's address and telling residents they were part of a missionary group 'targeting' the community," said the story. "The Kogens are native Israelis and hence not part of any missionary group. The advertisement invited the public to a protest planned against the Kogens, and on Sunday (June 26), about 20 of the group's supporters demonstrated outside the couple's home.

"The protests came after Yad L'Achim lost a court case against the Kogens and their congregational leader, Asher Intrater."

The group, CDN continued, had accused them of "proselytizing" minors. During the protest, a distraught 16-year-old girl, the alleged target of the couple's "missionary" efforts, said all of Yad L'Achim's claims were false. Donna Lubofsky maintains that she has never converted to Christianity.

She wanted to speak at the protest to give her side of what happened, but the organizers wouldn't let her, she said. "They are all liars, all liars! Ask them, why won't they let me speak?" Donna told Compass at the protest. "They won't let me speak because what they are saying is untrue. They [the Kogens] never tried to get me to believe. They are just good people."

For more information, please go to: www.compassdirect.org

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Dan Wooding, 70, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 47 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. He now hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on KWVE in Southern California which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Besides this, Wooding is a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 200 countries. You can follow Dan on Facebook under his name there or at ASSIST News Service. He is the author of some 44 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, has also recently released his first novel "Red Dagger." .